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New Ashburn Elementary School Boundaries

Discussion in 'Broadlands Community Issues' started by vacliff, Aug 24, 2012.

  1. MadCat07

    MadCat07 New Member

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    Villager - thanks for the feedback and all of the updates ! I have e-mailed the board with my thoughts and look forward to attending the meetings.
     
  2. Villager

    Villager Ashburn Village Resident

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    MadCat07: Great! We're given an option to participate in the process. Hopefully our opinions really will mean something when the decision is made. We can certainly try!
     
  3. DLando

    DLando New Member

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    Glad to see this topic on the forum. We'll be at the meeting tonight. I heard in the past that the Broadlands HOA was active in helping to keep the Broadlands kids in the Broadlands schools. Anyone know if that's true? We've been in Southern Walk since 2002, but our daughter just started 1st grade at Mill Run, so we're just now getting engaged on the school issues.

    Thanks,
    Dana
     
  4. jdhauer

    jdhauer Active Member

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    I think it will be harder this time to keep communities together after the precedent set with CL19 in Leesburg. I wouldn't be surprised to see plans sending Overland Park over to Discovery.

    What I would like to see is more stability of programs and less overcrowding - particularly with overflow. I have a 1st grader at Hillside and about half of her kindergarten class went to other schools this year. It was like starting over again even though she didn't change schools. Again, there are large numbers of overflow this year. While a lot of attention is paid to the kids who are sent away from their home schools, little is paid to the schools who are receiving those kids. The teachers were getting new kids and losing kids on a weekly basis from their classes. In an overflow situation, you aren't just talking about kids from one attendance zone but from multiple zones - it really is hard on the teachers and all of the kids.
     
  5. DLando

    DLando New Member

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    We have several friends in the overflow situation. Sent to schools far away and in some cases different schools than their siblings. It's crazy. It's been really tough on the kids all round and you're right, we shouldn't forget that hurts the kids who don't get moved as well. It really offers no stability for any of the children.
     
  6. Villager

    Villager Ashburn Village Resident

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  7. Villager

    Villager Ashburn Village Resident

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    According to page 55 (part of the FAQ) of the Presentation:

    Question: I have an attendance zone proposal that I would like to share with the School Board and the community. Who should I contact?

    Answer: Following the initial public input sessions, a base school attendance zone proposal(s) will be presented by staff on October 18. All subsequent attendance zone suggestions will be proposed by School Board members. Excluding the base school attendance zone proposal(s), only School Board originated proposals will be posted on the LCPS website. Members of the public are encouraged to share their thoughts with the School Board. While you may contact School Board members directly, all written proposals received by LCPS’ Department of Planning and Legislative Services will be forwarded to each School Board member for their consideration.
     
  8. lilpea

    lilpea Member

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    Villager - I have searched the LCPS (& legislative section) website and I can not find any map that shows "walker zones" for the impacted ES. Do you know if such map exists?

    And you know if Dr. Adamo has a comprehensive student population breakdown, which indicates (via a map) of what are the sub-zones the population comes from? The reason I ask is if you review the student pop spreadsheet (Mill Run) it shows several line item entries and I would be curious to see how those figures correspond to the current zone.

    I was some what concerned when I heard several speakers (who live in Regency & Carrisbrooke) that their kids are bused to Mill Run. There is no doubt that Mill Run is one of the most heavily populated ES, but the thought of having kids in the Southernwalk Community (Village, Demott) bussed to Discovery or Mooreview ES doesn't make sense....why move kids who live in the Community to a new ES.
     
  9. vacliff

    vacliff "You shouldn't say that."

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    I hope the Broadlands HOA gets engaged in this.
    It is very possible that parts of Broadlands will be carved up and sent to other schools.
    Walk zones are shown in the slideshow presentation linked to in Villager's post.
    The individual population district zones are also spelled out in the presentation.
     
  10. MadCat07

    MadCat07 New Member

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    I had intended to attend but ended up watching on FIOS Channel 43. I have a couple of questions, wondering if anyone might have any answers/thoughts : first, I was under the impression that all of the Elementary Schools in the area were relatively the same size (at least the more modern ones), but it appears that several (Creighton's Corner and Legacy, for example) have a significantly greater "Program Capacity" than others (ex. Hillside and Sanders Corner). Are some of these schools built to accommodate more than others ? Second, is "Walker Zone" particularly relevant in the decision making process (i.e. would "Walkers" typically not be impacted in these sorts of boundary changes) ?
     
  11. Villager

    Villager Ashburn Village Resident

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    In the Presentation (which is 60 pages), page 25 shows the planning zones by map and includes the zone numbers that you can reference on some of the charts. Is that the sub-zones you mean?

    Walk Zone info begins on page 40, with the maps on page 41.

    I thought it was interesting to hear some of the speakers' comments about being okay with moving to the new elementary school (the woman from Regency was one) but they are looking ahead to figure out which middle and high schools that would place them in later on. That probably should be a consideration when it comes down to hammering out which clusters the new schools will fall into.

    Personally, I think Carrisbrooke students should go to Discovery, but that's based on geography, not any other consideration. A speaker from there was concerned about having to turn left onto Waxpool (presumably from Ashburn Road) since there is no stop sign along Waxpool at that intersection. I think if the traffic issue can be worked out that community would be a good candidate for Discovery. I'm nerdy enough to have reviewed the maps and if you base everything strictly on geography, perhaps DN43 and DN44.2 should go to Discovery. They're really in the middle but if the overcrowding is at Hillside and Mill Run, it could be a reasonable alternative.

    But like I said, I'm just going by geography, there are many other variables to consider.
     
  12. Villager

    Villager Ashburn Village Resident

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    Madcat, I think the walkers issue might be that perhaps in some cases people who live within walking distance to a school don't actually go to that school. That's my assumption, anyway. For example, the people who live across Ashburn Road from Broad Run HS go to Stone Bridge HS, even though they could walk to BR.

    As far as schools, I know the last one built (was that Rosa Lee Carter?) is a two story building, as will be Discovery and Moorefield Station. I don't know what the square footage or number of classrooms those are, though. Just from being inside a couple different local elementary schools, while the floorplans are basically the same, there do appear to be some differences, which could account for the smaller differences in capacities. If anyone has been inside more of them they might know more about the various layouts that could affect that.

    Page 10 of the Presentation shows the current school boundaries. Or you can check here on page 2.


    Also, I see that more information has been added to the website so you might check that out.
     
  13. lilpea

    lilpea Member

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    Thanks Villager - I completely missed those pages. I a bunch of people in the Southernwalk community will have work sessions in the next few days. The goal is to create an alternative plan and have our plan sponsored by a current SB member.
     
  14. Villager

    Villager Ashburn Village Resident

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    Page 5 has sidewalks and trails marked on the map, which could be helpful in figuring out which places, while geographically close to a school, are actually walkable. That could answer MadCat's walk zone question.
     
  15. Villager

    Villager Ashburn Village Resident

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  16. MadCat07

    MadCat07 New Member

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    Thanks Villager ! Really appreciate the insight/updates.
     
  17. wahoogeek

    wahoogeek New Member

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    A theory from a previous school rezoning effort that I particpated in was that "walkers" are not typically impacted because they would not need a bus (duh!) and thereby not cause an increase in transportation funds. I don't know if this is officially stated somewhere.

    A rather bad effect of this is that you could live within sight of a school, but since you ride a bus (because of no walking access) you might be a candidate for changing.
     
  18. mdcrim

    mdcrim Member

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    Cedar Lane doesn't even have ANY walkers, even though it's smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood. I believe it was deemed too unsafe for kids to walk or bike. So the entire population of the school is biased in. A little weird to have a school bus stop half a block from a school...
     
  19. Liss

    Liss New Member

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    One thing I have never understood about LCPS is that there appears to be almost no consideration of logical clustering and pyramid planning. Where I grew up, neighborhoods were NEVER split up - the elementary school was considered a foundational part of the neighborhood. Every school in the district was in a clear pyramid; if you went to elementary schools A, B, C, D you went to middle school A. Middle schools A, B, and C formed high school A.

    This led to solid family involvement in the schools, heavy school involvement in the community, and lifelong relationships, because you knew that if you started kindergarten with someone, you would graduate from high school with them (assuming you lived in the same place).

    Granted that it's difficult to do that when the pace of growth is so rapid, but I would expect that the fully populated/built-out parts of the county would have settled into a stable pyramid by now, with changes only happening in areas where there is continued growth - adding new pyramids and new schools, but not significantly disrupting existing ones.
     
  20. lilpea

    lilpea Member

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    I asked for this item to be placed on next Tuesday's agenda...below is the email response I received, so I doubt they are currently engaged.

    But the SW HOA has already reached out to 5 neighboring HOAs and multiple parents. We are holding a series of workshops (starting tomorrow) to create a comprehensive and cohesive plan for ALL the Ashburn ES boundaries and will present to the School Board later this month.

    From:
    Sarah Gerstein <sarah@broadlandshoa.com>
    To: "Erika Hodell Cotti (redacted)
    Cc: brian beahm <redacted>
    Sent: Friday, October 5, 2012 6:35 PM
    Subject: Request for Addition to Board Agenda

    Hi Erika,

    I understand from Stassa Collins in my office that you had asked to be placed on the agenda for the next board meeting to discuss School Boundary issues. I would ask that you bring this up for discussion during the Homeowner Forum portion of the meeting as this is the usual place on the agenda for such items to be raised. The Homeowner Forum comes early in the meeting, directly after the call to order and approval of minutes or the previous meeting.

    Please contact me with any questions.

     

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